I was thinking about throwing MOAB a big b'day party next week - seeing how it's gettin' round that date - but then I thought - "oh no - I'm far too intimidated by {name deleted due to possible negative connotations of post} personal opinions to post that type of thing."

then I thought "Or maybe I should just to prove to {name deleted so he can't find it if he does a search} that I'm NOT inhibited by {other name}"

then I thought - "Screw it! Since when did what anyone else think concern me while I was posting on the MOAB thread.

Loverly bit. Tyhe thought arose that it is a good thing we don't have any Biblical literalists about the house. They would be annoyed by our confusion of the tribes -- the Moabites mixed up with the children of Babylon and the confounded builders of Babel. On the other hand no-one ever said those things would never change. I think they have.

I was just thinking myself that the tavern hadn't been open for a while. You'll have to clear out all of the tree needles and such (tip it on end is what I threaten to do to clean my house, and a Mudcat, you really can clean a place that way!)

Locale--how about a nice warm and sunny place, not a cold and rainy one. You could use my back yard, but you'll have to be careful about the poison ivy back by the creek, and I don't want that jello pit turning my driveway into a slippery mess. Move it toward the back so visitors won't step in the veggie garden.

That's just one suggestion. The honeysuckle is in full-bloom, there are lots of songbirds, and the June bugs aren't too bad yet.

And why do the Google ads seem to be hawking Yes CDs every time I visit the MOAB lately? I don't see what Yes's music has to do with the MOAB or even with the Mudcat. This place is about folk music, not pretentious, overblown "symphonic rock" crap!

Maybe if we all refrained from using the word "yes" in our posts they'd go away?

You can get anything you want at the MOAB Mudcat Tavern You can get anything you want at the MOAB Mudcat Tavern Single malt Scotch or Icelandic schnaps Beer brewed with hallucogenic hops You can get anything you want at the MOAB Mudcat Tavern

On the wide prairies between Laramie and Boulder, where the yellow flowers are firing up in the Spring, and the nodding grasses whisper in the sunset, there's a place where the sloping meadows run down to a broad creek. The creek is known as Little Bear. There's a broad turn to the creek where it is very wide, swing from south-west to south-by-west and forming a pleasant dell in its elbow. In that dell there is a crude plank building, with a wide porch, the lumber all adzed and crudely matched, the chinks stopped with adobe from the wetland. It is large and rambling, with outbuildings, small add-ons, and a wide gravel-and-dirt road that comes over the hill and down to the house and then peters out before it falls in the creek. There are oaks, ash, and a mess of half-breed stuff growing along the banks further down. It is a pleasant place, especially in a soft Spring evening. You can hear the whippoorwills getting their chorus on, and when the moon rises of the hills you can hear a coyote sometimes, looking for sympathy. It's a sturdy warm house, well built if crudely, and it stays warm all winter through.

That's a good place for a Mudcat Tavern. The lights are kerosene, the refrigeration is by cool-box. But there's a big roasting pit and a swimming hole at the creek turn. And ya never know who'll drop in for a pint of moonshine. The bar in particularly is well stocked with stuffs all the way from Denver. Never runs dry.

You want blueberries? Have I ever mentioned that I have thousands of blueberry bushes, some the size of small trees, on my property? Have I mentioned that the usual early March cold snap that always seems to kill about half of the flowering buds on the blueberry bushes didn't happen this year? Have I mentioned that lots of my blueberry bushes that used to bear poorly because they were in the shade are now in the sunlight due to the trees that were shading them having been blown down? Have I mentioned that, in other words, I'm gonna have a shitload of blueberries this summer?

Now, if we can only have some reasonable temperatures when prime blueberry pickin' time gets here in July...

I have come in a stately disguise, with trouser pockets full of dried blueberries.I know of what I speak of mainly, for cause and justice and I fear not a bluish tounge that will whip a frenzy of a mannerish thought into an air of discreet notion and pentance, I will reveal.My manner is but lofty and distiguished, as I saunter with my pocketful, and maintain a wishful thought that it remain so, as I casually taste of the sweet fruit upon my tounge buds.Be it so sweet, like an air of flowered desire, for I am not of sour or salt. My scent of rational thought lingers with an epicurism of fiendish delight, yet I am softened of belly.Let the law of life revel inside, as I languish in the empathy of blueberry pocket treats, and permeate a breath of inspired blessedness unto the bluish stains of my fingertips.

2. I like to sprinkle dried blueberries and other dried fruits on salads. Also some nuts (walnuts, cashews, pecans -- whatever) and crumbled herbed goat cheese. I'm going to try them in a Guinness sauce, too.

Mix (washed) fresh blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries (or chose any single one, I don't care) and sprinkle with sugar (or Splenda). Toss together so that the berries become slightly bruised and the juices run out. After all the flavors are blended with the sweetner, serve over scones or angel food cake. Top with creme fraiche or whipped cream.

But the blueberries won't be ripe in time for the MOAB Birthday Tavern!

No, wait! They will be! Nevermind. I forgot that the Tavern and the Space-Time Continuum don't have much truck with each other. Heck, I could bring blueberries from the 2007 crop and the 1999 crop too!

Actually, 2003 was a really bad year. We had separate killing frosts around March 1st and March 15th. Our bushes are wild so they don't all bloom at once (like the ones in the U-pick farm up the highway), but two hard freezes during blooming season got almost all the blooms. We had maybe 10% of our usual crop.

Maybe I'll bring some of the blackberries that used to be along the roadside before they got mowed down.

Pay no attention. I'm just trying to beat back the Google ads for that insipid '70s "symphonic rock" group whom I cannot name here for fear of further triggering whatever utility Google uses to site their ads.

Better yet, I shall click on the Google ad about a zillion times so that Google will pay Max lots of money and the "store" will have to pay Google so much money they will go into bankruptcy. That'll get rid of 'em!

well - here I am again - ready to plumb the depths of the MOAB in search of enlightenment.

Pitiful, ain't i?

But I have crucial, burning questions that need to be answered - such as:

If Martha *Has* broken her parole - How long will it take to heal? And will she have to wear a cast?

Will LtS ever find the source of her guinea Pig song (or did her Da just make it up?)

Will Liz ever think to start a thread at mudcat re: the above?

Is the Pope an Ivory billed Woodpecker - or will acoustic analysis show him to be nothing but a recording of the 'Nights Templar and the Illuminauts'?

Why does the "predicting your age by chocolate" ask me how often I would like to have chocolate a week - then restrict me to less then 10. that doesn't get me through a day. (breakfast, 2nd breakfast, car snack, brunch, coffee break, elevenses, small lunch, lunch, snack, late snack, tea, late tea, hor d'hourves, dinner, supper,ante-dormir)

Well, the Truth Is Out There, and MOAB has lots more of it than anyplace else. In fact, the MOAB has not only whole truths, but truths-and-a-half and even more. It's a good place to look for it, it certainly is.